12.10.04

Officials from baseball’s other 29 teams have been cursing the Mets for the three years and $22.5 million they committed to Kris Benson last month. That contract, for a pitcher with a career losing record, has made Jon Lieber, Brad Radke and Jaret Wright far richer than anticipated.

Now it’s the Mets’ turn to wave a finger at someone else.

The Arizona Diamondbacks signed Troy Glaus to a four-year, $45-million contract yesterday, blowing up the free-agent market for corner infielders. The deal will certainly impact the Mets’ desire to fill their first-base void with either Carlos Delgado or Richie Sexson.

The industry consensus had been that Delgado and Sexson, both free agents, would land deals for about $10 million a season. They are likely to get more now, thanks to Glaus.

One major-league official sympathetic to the Mets’ needs called the Glaus contract “a joke.”

He has spent virtually one year on the disabled list in the past two years,” the official said, “and gets a huge contract.””

Glaus played in 58 games in 2004, missing nearly two-thirds of the season with a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder. In 2003, he played in only 91 games, largely because of his right shoulder but also because of problems with his back, left hamstring, left foot and right hand.

Suddenly, the fact that Sexson played in only 23 games last year, missing the rest with torn cartilage in his left shoulder, is less of an issue for Sexson’s agent, Casey Close. After all, Sexson never went on the disabled list before last year.

The same goes for Delgado, who missed time in 2004 with a strained rib cage but has generally been healthy.